Perhaps the biggest transformation in Hong Kong racing over the past decade has been the rise of local trainers – but could the next wave be the emergence of homegrown jockeys?
The only Hong Kong racing story older than a local trainer losing a top horse to a foreigner is a Chinese jockey watching a prized ride go the same way. In the training ranks, the change has been unmistakable.
When Dennis Yip Chor-hung claimed the trainers’ championship in 2013, it was dismissed as a fluke – but in hindsight it was a tremor before a genuine shake-up.
Since then, Ricky Yiu Poon-fai (2019/20), Frankie Lor Fu-chuen (2021/22) and Francis Lui Kin-wai (2023/24) have all lifted the champion trainer trophy. None were one-hit wonders – all remain fixtures near the top.
Lui’s reinvention has been especially telling. Once a mild-mannered operator for whom a mid-table finish was a win, he’s become a mainstay at the pointy end.
In 2010, he lost the promising three-year-old Ambitious Dragon to South African Tony Millard, who watched the horse go on to win the 2011 Hong Kong Derby and two Horse of the Year titles.
Now Lui is a perennial force – trainer of the transcendent Golden Sixty and now fresh off Cap Ferret’s 2024 Derby triumph. Golden Sixty was Hong Kong-owned, trained and ridden – and Vincent Ho Chak-yiu’s icy poise and unwavering bond with the champion miler have already entered local folklore.
But could Ho’s rise prove, in time, the same spark that Yip’s 2013 win became – an omen of broader change?
Maybe the forgotten subplot of the Yip fairytale was that it hinged on another local, the under-the-radar Ben So Yik-hung, who faced enormous pressure needing to win the final race of the season aboard Flying Elite to secure the title.
The most striking part of the Ho–Golden Sixty saga wasn’t Ho’s composure under fire – it was that when he stumbled, he wasn’t scapegoated. He stayed on.
When Matthew Chadwick partnered California Memory to back-to-back Hong Kong Cup victories in 2011 and 2012, he still rode under constant scrutiny. Derek Leung Ka-chun’s bold front-running tactics unlocked Beauty Generation’s surge through the grades – he won the G1 Hong Kong Mile, but after a defeat next start, Zac Purton was booked.
Young veterans Chadwick, Ho, Leung and Keith Yeung Ming-lun all came through the HKJC’s Apprentice Jockeys’ School with a two-year window. Add Ben So Tik-hung — now retired and assisting Jamie Richards – and the group has tallied more than 2,100 winners.
The next month will see a star-studded influx: Hollie Doyle and James McDonald already on deck, with Maxime Guyon soon to arrive.
Last week we touched on the pressure that the flood of foreign firepower brings – and in the lead-up to the Hong Kong International Races, it’s long been “hunting season” for locals. It’s a tough time to be struggling.
There was even a light-hearted suggestion by racecourse wags that stewards would hand out suspensions a touch more freely at this time of year – clearing the stage for the big names. It’s a small sample, but Wednesday night at Happy Valley hinted at a shift. “J-Mac” rode six mounts – four of them favorite or second pick – yet went home winless.
Locals took the first five races and six of nine overall. Most encouragingly, four of those winners came from the next wave of Chinese riders: Matthew Poon Ming-fai (with a double), Ellis Wong Chi-wang and Angus Chung Yik-lai.
Along with Jerry Chau Chun-lok and Britney Wong Po-ni, this ambitious group are jostling for top-10 positions in the jockeys’ championship against some of the world’s elite.
If history is any guide, Hong Kong’s next great homegrown racing story might already be in the saddle.
